Move to the 4:45 second mark to hear Tim Brando discuss the call at the end of the LSU game (ht - Catfish and Cornbread). If you can't access YouTube via work, here's a transcription of the conversation that Steve Patterson of UGASports.com put together.
“The rule absolutely has to be abolished. Not changed. Just get rid of it...What Brando appears to be talking about there is the issue of race. Tim Tebow has never been flagged by an SEC official for celebration; yet, Tebow dances around like an idiot after every two yard run both drawing attention to himself and pandering to the crowd. When LSU scored their first touchdown their offensive linemen were gesturing to the UGA student section and acting wildly on the field celebrating their TD without flag.
...There are more of these called in the Southeastern Conference than any other league in America, and I am going to tell you because it is up to the discretion and judgment of the official that I think now that the politics of the community...of the area are going to be called into question. You don’t want this to happen, because if we take this conversation where we could, it is not going to bode well for the Southeastern Conference.
So first and foremost in the off season they've got to abolish it.
“Rogers Redding, who is in charge of the SEC officials, had better tell his officials 'you had better cease and desist on calling them so quickly.”
“They don't want us to go more in-depth on why the SEC is throwing more. I am telling you, it is a conversation, I don’t want to have it, my friend Spencer does not want to have it, and I am telling you, watch out, because people are going to take a closer look at this and it is not going to bode well for the league.”
Am I saying the issue really is race? I believe that Caucasian players rarely get flagged in the SEC no matter how excited they get. I've never seen it. Have you? So is Brando right? Or is it simply a situation where UGA is still being punished for the 2007 Celebration in Jacksonville? Either way, I don't care. Enough is enough.
Living Under an Oppressive Regime
I'm generally not a conspiracy theorist. But Georgia does live under an oppressive officiating regime. The current SEC Supervisor of Officials is Rogers Redding (Georgia Tech class of 1965). The prior Supervisor of Officials was Bobby Gaston (Georgia Tech class of 1948). The Chief of Officials for Saturday's game vs. LSU was Marc Curles (Georgia Tech graduate). (Ht - HacksawDawg). And for good measure, the play by play man was Al Ford who wrongly announced that Jasper fumbled.
Let me just ask you this....would Kentucky ever allow the head of SEC basketball officials to be from Louisville? Obviously not. Yet, we've had a Tech man running the show for the SEC since 1988. 21 years is enough. Is there not a competent official from Iowa, Texas or hell...American Samoa.
PWD
(BTW -- It is outrageously inappropriate to email Curles at his place of business about his performance as a ref. If you have an issue with the officiating, you should contact Mike Slive via letter or email.)
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